Implementation of Interdisciplinary Thinking in Educational Context - Assignment Example

Implementation of Interdisciplinary thinking in educational context Implementation of Interdisciplinary Thinking in Educational context The 21st century with its many challenges calls for a need of interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary approaches to counteract the complexities confronted by the societies. One such good example is environment sustainability. With the earth’s resources dissimilating, it is necessary that individuals and communities on a whole understand what sustainability means, its significance and how it can be achieved which requires knowledge and perspectives from different disciplines such as natural sciences, social sciences and humanities. The ultimate goal of implementing interdisciplinary thinking in educational contexts is to enable the students to apply values and a panoramic critical thinking to the different situations they encounter in life in order to make better decisions (Klein, 2010). In other words, interdisciplinary education emphasizes cognitive advancement of students through interconnection of multiple ideas from different disciplines. The implementation of interdisciplinary thinking in educational context equips an individual with the ability to comprehensively understand the universal ideas and drive meaning from the world (Holley, 2009). Reasons behind the Need of Interdisciplinary Studies The interest in interdisciplinary studies has increased dramatically over the past few years. There are several reasons behind this change which are listed as follows: 1. Relevance of Curriculum According to US department of Education (2003), 25 percent of students dropped out of school every year in United States of America. One of the major reasons behind this phenomenon is the irrelevance of the discipline learned in school with regards to the practical application outside their schools. It is difficult for the students to comprehend why they need to do mathematics especially in the circumstance when most of the things they get taught is based on textbooks without any application in real life. The dilemma only adds up when the students do not get any chance to do in-depth study of one subject specifically if it is of their interest. Students confront real time problems in the world outside their school and they do not find their studies helpful in this regard. It does not mean that schools should stop focusing on specific study areas or discipline. It just emphasizes the need to create learning experiences for the students; thus increasing the level of relevancy of disciplines taught in schools. If students get to see how studying different disciplines can play a vital part in solving real time problems, they will want to learn as well (Jacobs, 2004). 2. Fragmentation The whole world has started to realize that it is very difficult to encourage specialization of different fields yet expect the individuals to deal with multi-faceted nature of most of the fields of occupation. For example a doctor cannot be trained in physiology or biology exclusively because she needs to have comprehensive expertise and knowledge about all the body in general as she has to treat the whole human being. Business schools are imparting education solely related to business administration. The interdisciplinary education will help solve the problem of fragmentation and will incorporate strategies to help students have panoramic perspective about their field (Augsburg & Henry, 2006). 3. Growth of Knowledge: Knowledge is a perpetually developing concept in all areas of study. The breadth wise growth of all disciplines has been continually happening to the point that now pupils hardly get to do in-depth study of one issue. The curriculum planner needs to also plan what needs to be eliminated from the curriculum. For example, in English literature there are new books written by new authors that also need to be studied. In the same manner, social studies and science are continuously growing disciplines. In this scenario it is important to equip students with expertise which develop and encourage interdisciplinary thinking (Jacobs, 2006). Critical Thinking Model of Richard Paul and why it should be implemented: In order to incorporate the factor of interdisciplinary thinking in the current educational context, it is proposed that the Critical Thinking Model of Richard Paul should be considered for planning the curriculum. Richard Paul is of the view that knowledge alone is of no importance and significance if not paired with the element of thinking, as knowledge in itself depends on thought. It is the process of thinking that comprehends and analyzes the knowledge imparted and it is thought alone that further builds upon the knowledge gained (Paul, 1992). He is a strong advocate of critical thinking and states that it is the element of critical thinking that truly equips the students with the tools to reason well within every domain of a subject. Such tools can be categorized in three divisions which are as follows: 1) Analysis of thinking: This domain primarily deals with generating purposes for thought, raising questions, using information, making inferences & assumptions, generating implications and embodyi9ng a point of view. 2) Assessment of thinking: This refers to one’s ability to access the reasoning of the thought process within any discipline which in turn, requires the fulfilment of certain intellectual standards such as clarity, accuracy, relevance, depth etc. 3) Fostering Intellectual Dispositions: It suggests that true ability of critical thinking comes with rationality in the character and should consequently, develop the ability to have a fair minded approach on the subject under consideration (Elder & Paul, 2008). Richard Paul classifies the learning domain into two categories, one of lower order learning and the other one of higher order learning. The lower order learning has a very short term scope and is aimed to just get through the exams to get the grades. It considers all that is being taught as mere information that needs to be kept in mind to clear the tests. In this type of learning, the students just cram the concepts for brief period of time and with the passage of time, they are just left with random fragments of information that they crammed instead of the whole knowledge that should have been gained from the subject (Paul, 1992). Higher order learning on the other hand employs the use of logic to the aspects being learned and taught in terms of how the concept makes sense, arguments in favour and against the concept and in terms of how the concept fit in with the other things that are known to the person. It is the one that actually promotes and enhances the critical thinking abilities of a person through the knowledge imparted by education to achieve mastery of content along with a thorough understanding of the subject matter that in turn, creates a disciplined mind (Paul, 1992). Richard Paul’s model has been specifically proposed due to the fact it is based on the belief that the education should be imparted in a manner that promotes higher order learning instead of lower order learning. The whole scope of interdisciplinary studies is to broaden the horizon of the student’s thinking abilities. It is to enable and equip them with tools to deal with real life situations. The conventional curriculum however fails to provide the students with abilities to think out of the box to deal with complications that they eventually have to face outside of their schools. In this ever changing and interdependent world that we live in, it is impossible for people schooled in specialized school of thought to deal with the daily multidimensional situations. They should have know-how and should be able to critically think and analyze in a multidimensional context (Seaver & Davis, 2000). Implementation Plan: In order to incorporate the aspect of interdisciplinary studies, schools should make efforts to inculcate the subject discipline of critical thinking in the school curriculum. The schools should select the content that is to be taught by evaluating how the subject matter would contribute to the learning of the students and how can it be made to look useful and applicable in real life. This can also include designing the curricula in a manner that spans on a multidimensional approach by conveying to the students how the subject matter connects to other disciplines as well. The instructors should make a point to incorporate skill based tasks related to the concepts which would force the students to engage in thinking on their own level which in turn, would greatly contribute to their actual learning. The usage of the task technique would ensure that the students comprehend the concepts correctly and also practice their implementation on practical grounds. The assessment tools for analyzing the students’ learning should also be designed in a manner that they get scrutinized in comparison to the set targets. The targets should be communicated to the students beforehand so that they know what they are going to learn and what is expected of them in terms of their understanding of the real time application of the concepts. Efforts should be made to add a meta-cognitive aspect to the learning of the students so as to enable them to evaluate on their own what are the learning outcomes in terms of identifying the concepts when they are applied and develop and build upon their further understanding of the subject matter on those concepts. Tasks should be as such that enables the students employ those skills on different contents and/or different aspects of their lives. Conclusion There are some factors that need to be kept in mind when implementing interdisciplinary thinking. The first factor is the recognition of the fact that interdisciplinary initiatives and programmes are intentional (Archibald, 2009). The mere introduction and implementation of interdisciplinary thinking would not do the job- the students would also need help with integration and synthesizing of the information gathered (Hatcher & Spencer, 2005). Another factor that needs to be taken care of is that the prevailing educational practices are not weakened under the burden of undertaking implementation of interdisciplinary programmes because such a scenario would only prove to be counterproductive (Springer & Borthick, 2004). It should also be kept in mind that the programs and initiatives that are built slowly and gradually are the most sustainable and successful (Yin, 2005). So, the interdisciplinary programmes can slowly build on the faculty creativity funded by the school’s resources. The implementation plan designed in this essay has the potential to truly make pupils inclined towards an interdisciplinary thinking process. The school environment suggested in this essay can help students connect, synthesize and develop an interdisciplinary thinking in them. The proposed activities in the interdisciplinary plan can enrich the intellectual life of the whole of school. References Archibald, DC (2009). Barriers and solutions to launching an ID movement. Jefferson, NC: McFarland. Augsburg & S. Henry, (2006) (Eds.) The politics of interdisciplinary studies: Essays on transformations in American undergraduate programs. Jefferson, NC: McFarland. Association of American Universities (AAU). (2005). Report of the Interdisciplinary Task Force. Washington, DC: AAU Elder, L. & Paul, R. (2008). Critical Thinking: the nuts and bolts of education. 33(3). 88-91. Hatcher, D. L., & Spencer, L. A. (2005). Reasoning and Writing: From Critical Thinking to Composition. 3rd. ed. Boston: American Press Holley, K. (2009). Understanding interdisciplinary challenges and opportunities in higher education. ASHE Higher Education Report Series, 35(2). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Jacobs, H (2004), Interdisciplinary Curriculum-Design and Implementation. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Klein, J.T. (2010). Creating interdisciplinary campus cultures: A model for strength and sustainability. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Moss, J. & Godinho, S. (2007). Reforming current assessment practices: Implications for educating teachers in the A-E economy. Curriculum Perspectives, 27(3), 36-48. Paul, R. (1992). Critical Thinking: What, why and how? New Directions for Community Colleges, 77, 3-22. Ritchart, R. (2002). Intellectual Character: What it is, why it Matters and how to get it? San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Seaver, J. & Davis, E. (2000). Critical Thinking in young Children. NY: The Edwin Mellen Press. Springer, C., & Borthick, F. (2004). Business simulation to stage critical thinking in introductory accounting: Rationale, design, and implementation. Issues in Accounting Education, 19(3), 277-303. Strathern, M. (2006). A community of critics: thoughts on new knowledge. Anthropology Institution, 12, 191-209 Shulman, L. & Sherin, M. (2004). Fostering communities of teachers as learners: Disciplinary perspectives. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 36(2), 135-140 Yin, R. (ed). (2005) Introducing the world of education: a case study reader. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications. U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, The Condition of Education 2003. NCES 2003-067. Washington, DC: 2003. Read More